The present invention relates to a diverter blade for diverting articles from a conveying surface.
In the conveying and sorting of packages, such as packages to be mailed, it is customary, as shown in FIG. 6, to divert the packages A from a conveying surface 2 at respective discharge stations. On flat belt sorters this has traditionally been done using a steel diverter blade 4 which is rotated by a suitable actuator 6 into contact with a package to physically displace the package onto a branch conveyor or chute 8.
Steel diverter blades have been susceptible to fatigue failure, especially due to cracks which initiate in the heat-affected weld zones. Applicants have determined that such cracks occur as a result of the cyclical dynamic loads generated by accelerating and decelerating the blade.
It is necessary to grind and reweld, or replace a cracked diverter blade, which is expensive and requires that the conveyor line be temporarily shut down.
It would be desirable to provide a novel diverter blade which is highly resistant to such fatigue failure.